Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-02-23
DIR. BECK,S PATIENT.
A Dream Taught Him What
Allied the Child.

Allied the Child.
On bright November Sunday SOM
years since MIR. and Mrs. Hiram Lowell
then residents of this place, but now o
Burlington. this (CarrolD County
started in their buggy for neighbor
ing village, having with them theil
youngest child, then about twenty
months old. The baby, prattling in i'll
mothers lap, apparently well and strong
and enjoying the ride, suddenly started its
parents by struggling in a oonvulsion.
This event turned them home
ward Arriving there about sundown,
another spasm occurred. and /, theiI
family physician, was sent for. Relief
was had for the night, but two more
occurred on the following Monday
morning and evening. The child did
not seem sick, but ate, laughed and
played between the attacks as though
nothing mad occurred. Each day wit.
messed one or two commissions. vi
coarse there was a cause. and in my
search and failure 10 find it l was con-
siderably nonplussed and perplexed. l
had get aside by the method known to
physicians as exclusiou-worms,t teeth
ing injesta, etc., as the cause, and set
tied down in the conviction that it was
reflex irritation upon nerve centres. but
what and where the impipglng offense!
Friday morning l awoke from my
sleep after having dreamed about my
patiept, and forthwith L related my
dream to my wife. l now give it in
full. l dreamed that paid my usual
morning visit to the sick child +; that
passed through the hall, opened the
door into the sitting-room and saw the
family seated at breakfast. Mrs. Muir
ply, (uow of Judsonia, Ark. q lady
boarder in the family, at the end of the
table on my right Mrs. Lowell sat on
her right; Mr.. l.. next to her, and Il
gentleman boarder next to him stove
Un my left, and between the end OF the
table and partition wall was the cradle
in which lay my little patient asleep -
feet toward me. My dream took in
this picture.
l ,hen approached the cradle, deliber-
ately lifted the left foot of the babe,
saw on the sole (plant1r surface), mid.
way between the zoe and heel, a small
r. d SPOT elevated two or three lines
above the surface. and in circumference
the SIZE of a grain of corn.
/ then deliberately and unhesitatingly
thrust my thumb and finger into my
right vest pocket, and taking ont my
thumb lance 1 punctured the rose col.
ored spot, when out came needle
three.fourths of an inch long, the eye
first, when l said to Mrs. L.: your
child will have no more spasms." This
was the dream, and Row what followed
was precisely as related in it, without
the slightest exaggeration or shade OF
difference in fact.
Arising in the morning, as usual, ate
my breakfast, and went immediately to
the house of my patient, with the dream
fresh in my mind, and with never a
thought of its fu!fillment. l had never
b.en q dreamer, and am not clairvoy-
ant. l passed through the hall and
opened the second door, to see the fam
ily at the table in the exact relative
positions mentioned aboye-baby, era.
die aud all! The only variation from
the dream was that sat down by the
stove to warm my hands just inside the
door to the left, and asking how
the baby rassed the night, was told
by Mrs. l.. that it had a good
night-no spasms, and was now sleep.
ing. | then narrated my dream in de-
tail, causing a ripple Of mirth and q
hearty laugh from Mrs. l. who started
up and toward the cradle, exclaiming:
"Ve'n see now about thi, dresm!'
Lifting the foot there surely was the
red spot. l approached the cradle
now; took the foot in my hand and
with my thumb lancet did punc .ure the
spot, and O needle, three-fourths Of an
inch long, eye first, did push out from
it's suppurating sack, the point broken
off presumably before its entrance in the
foot, and l did use the expression above
stated to Mrs. l. and there was 10 fur
Their trouble.
Now, let US examine a few points re-
latively in the dream before we jump to
the conclusion that It Was the legitimate
following of my anxiety for my little
patient, or that the case was on my
mind. sleeping or waking, and the re-
suit shadowed in tracings from conelu
sion to cause, fIon distant to proximate
ends of the line.
had never, up to this time, been in
the house when the family Were at their
neal. knew that there was q large
kitchen in the rear of this sit.ing.room
and supposed they dined there. saw
in my dream very distinctly, and noted
everything. even to the baking OF buck
wheat cakes on the parlor cookstove in
the sitting room. l did not know that
MIS-. NJ. boarded in the family, nor thai
they had gentleman boarder. He was
a stranger to me, never having seen MN
before that 1 remember Of, TILL In my
dream, yet Lis facs was familiar when
Jaw him at the table in the morning.
Another point. l invariably carried
my thumb lancet in small silver case
in nv left trousers pocket, always care
full to cleanse and rsplace it utter using
Nv dream made me take it out OF my
right vest pocket without q thought Q
reaching for it in its usual place /; poss!!
bly, the only time ever had it misplaced
aud occasioned this time by the fac
that the day before l abstracted bloot
| from the arm OF q stout lady
IN an epileptic seizure, and had to hell
hold her in her struggles, and hurriedly
and thoughtlessly the moment afte
letting blood, slipped it into my rlgh
| vest pocket and forgot it.. The ves'
pocket and the lancet loose in it, wa
the last place 1 should have looked fol
it in my waking state, for the case wa
still where always carried it.
Il. w. BECK, M. d.